The Value of Selected Measures of Personality Characteristics as Predictors of College Achievement.

Stewin, L. L.; Bicknell, J. E.

The aim of this investigation was to determine whether the most effective prediction of freshman college achievement could be obtained through using raw scores from the Dogmation Scale, Gough-Sanford Rigidity Scale, California F Scale, and the Canadian Opinionation Scale or through using a set of factor scores extracted from a combination of the above four as predictors of grade point average. The four measures were administered to 738 freshmen. A group of 140 cases were then selected, 50 for cross validation purposes and 90 to develop the necessary regression equations. Results showed that neither the factor scores nor the raw scores from the measures proved to be strong predictors of academic performance as represented by grade point average. From the results of this study it can be concluded that only the raw scores for the four psychological tests are significantly related to academic achievement of college freshmen. The three factors which were extracted may be of some interest in relationship to student activism. (KJ)